


Dissident

by barakatballs, ZaneShadow



Series: Dissident [1]
Category: Divergent (Movies), Divergent - Fandom, Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Consensual Underage Sex, Dubious Consent, Eric grows a heart, M/M, Modification of Canon Events, Movie/Book Fusion, One-Sided Attraction, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Original Character, POV Third Person, Pain Kink, Possessive Behavior, Rough Sex, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-03-14 12:04:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3409913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barakatballs/pseuds/barakatballs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaneShadow/pseuds/ZaneShadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaze was always attracted to Danger, so some might say Dauntless and others might say Crazy. However, this danger will lead to a whole mess of unforeseeable trouble, with Blaze right in the middle along with those similar to him: the Divergent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Piano

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and thank you for giving this fic a chance, we greatly appreciate it. This is our first Divergent fanfiction. In a way you could say we're new to the fandom, because we suddenly became obsessed with it after a whole year and a half of already having read the book and watched the movie.
> 
> Anyway first fics are usually experimentation with Characterization so we apologize if anyone seems out of character at any point in time.

Blaine absent-mindely curled a finger in his naturally fiery-red hair. He was bored, waiting for his name to be called amongst all of the other teens. He hated how his last name just had to begin with an S. They'd just finished the P's, and so far the biggest shock had been a Stiff leaving to go to Dauntless. It did interest him a bit. He himself was Candor, and everyone talked to each other honestly. So of course everyone voiced their honest opinion of Abnegation. Candor had no filter so it was expected. 

Initation day was something Blaine had always anticipated. He'd known for the longest time that he wished to be Dauntless. They were wild and fierce. Their aura screamed "freedom!"

The Aptitude Test he'd taken... The results had been... "Inconclusive," to quote what the woman had said. Blaine wasn't stupid, he knew what that meant. It meant he was Divergent. He'd told her to manually enter his results as Dauntless. Despite the disapproving look, she'd entered him in as Dauntless. What did it matter if he was Divergent? He wanted to be Dauntless. He was going to chose Dauntless. He was going to be Dauntless.

Blaine perked up as his twin sister, Alice, was called. He smiled faintly as he watched her walk up. Their physical appearances were very similar; pale skin, freckles, faded green eyes. The stark contrast between them was their hair. While Blaine's hair was a brilliant and vibrant mess of curly vermilion red, Alice's hair was pale blonde and wavy. She usually had it braided, but today it hung loosely, falling past her shoulders and down to her waist.

Alice picked Amity, just as Blaine had predicted. He and she were opposites, though they never argued much. Honesty seemed to help with arguments.

Blaine listened to the cheers as she approached her new faction, her new family. Faction before blood, is what they say. The cheering died down and Blaine's name was called. Blaine grinned for a second before straightening his expression. As he approached the steps, he almost felt bad for his parents who'd be losing both of their kids. Whatever guilt he felt faded away as he sliced his palm and held it over the hot coals of Dauntless.

Once again, Dauntless burst into cheers, whoops and applause. Blaine smiled as he walked down the stairs and to his new faction. He saw the Stiff, who looked only slightly nervous. Blaine was clapped on the back by a few Dauntless-born.

It seemed as though after he was called, the ceremony flew by.

The Factions all emptied out of the building and Blaine felt a resounding sense of Freedom rush through him as he ran with Dauntless to their train. He hopped through the open door and stood by a window. This was goodbye, he thought. No more Candor, no more parents.

"Are you excited?" A girl next him asked. She was from Amity, it seemed. She had coiled, dark brown hair and eyes to match. Her skin was creamy coloured and looked like it would tan easily.

"Yeah," Blaine responded, a grin once again finding its way onto his face. He held out his hand. "I'm Blaine, you?"

"Andrea," she answered. Her head turned sharply and Blaine followed her gaze. Person after person were hopping from the train and onto the roof of a building. "Oh wow," Andrea breathed.

"Looks like we gotta jump," Blaine said, excitement coursing through him. He walked to the train door. He took a few steps back before running and leaping out, vaguely hearing someone ask, "and what if we don't?"

For only a few seconds, Blaine felt like he was flying. He landed on the roof and rolled. Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the sunny sky and then got up. He began to follow the crowd as they approached the end of the building and stood amongst them. A man stood on the ledge of the roof.

Blaine raised an eyebrow as the man, who had introduced himself as Eric, explained the first part of their little initiation was to jump off this roof, down into who knows what. "If they wanted to kill us, they would've done so already," Blaine said, more to himself than anyone else, although he knew that Andrea was now standing beside him. It appeared as though no one was going to go first. He looked over and saw the Stiff looking contemplative. Oh hell no. Blaine quickly pushed through the crowd and stepped onto the ledge and then onto nothing. In a matter of seconds, Blaine had gone from the crowd to off the roof without a single hesitation on the ledge.

He was falling. The air rushing around him blocked out the sound of his own heartbeat. Blaine had ended falling facing the sky and the thought of not knowing if he was about to die made him nauseous. The feeling was gone, soon. He had been abruptly caught by... A net? When he had landed, he felt air return to his lungs. Blaine sloppily rolled over, as it was hard to do on the unstable surface the net provided. A seemingly irritated man helped Blaine out of the net. Blaine noted that it could be his neutral facial expression to look so grumpy.

"First jumper... What's your name?" He questioned Blaine. Blaine went to answer but was interrupted, "You can change it... If you'd like." Blaine thought for barely a second, it was almost as if he hadn't thought at all.

"I'm Blaze," he said, liking this new identity he was creating.

"Alright then," the man muttered before raising his voice. "Congratulations, First Jumper Blaze!" His dark eyes went back to Blaze. "Welcome to Dauntless." Another person had landed in the net and Blaze turned his head to see. It was the Stiff. Her expression was thinly veiled shock and relief. For once, Blaze agreed with her reaction.

The man raised an eyebrow at her he approached. "What, did somebody push you?" The Stiff made a partly surprised, partly triumphant look.

"No," she responded, a little breathless.

They stood together as one by one, the initiates landed in the net. Blaze observed the darkly lit area. Dauntless sure did love the colour black. "Heya! Remember me?" Andrea asked, tapping him on the shoulder. Blaze smiled at her, admiring the way the lighting complimented her features.

"That was exciting," Blaze commented as a few more people fell into the net.

"I can't believe that you were the first jumper," Andrea said.

"That Stiff girl was looking as if she was going to," Blaze responded. He glanced over to where she had drifted off to a dark-skinned girl with short black hair. "I didn't really jump, more like I just walked off a cliff."

"Just take the compliment, Blaine," she laughed. 

"It's Blaze now," He corrected lightly. Andrea nodded.

"It fits you. With your hair and also your personality," she observed. Blaze grinned and was about to comment when grump-face spoke again.

"Dauntless-born go with Lauren, iniates with me," he gestured to a blonde woman next to him. As the Dauntless-born shuffled away, grumpy-face continued. "Most of the time, I work with intelligence but during your training, I'll be your instructor. My name's Four." Blaine exchanged a look with Andrea.

"Like the number?" The dark-haired girl near the Stiff questioned. Four nodded, a halfhearted smirk appearing for a moment.

"Exactly like the number," he responded.

"What happened, 1 through 3 were taken?"

Blaze chuckled at the girl's sass but his grin faltered when he noticed the sarcastic grin on Four's face.

"What's your name?" He asked, approaching the female candor.

"Christina."

"Well, Christina," Four began in a low voice, all humor gone, "the first lesson you learn from me is that if you want to survive, you keep your mouth shut."

Oh boy. They got one who couldn't handle the joys of sass.

The atmosphere went from tense to relieved in a matter of seconds once Four stepped away from Christina and told the initiates to follow him. "Looks like we're going to have loads of fun here in Dauntless," Blaze muttered to Andrea.

"What a killjoy this guy is," Andrea complained quietly, her eyes cutting to his figure. Blaze let out a breath of air and placed his hands behind his head. Killjoy could quite possibly be an understatement.

Four stopped them and Blaze and Andrea, along with the rest, looked down to the crowded area below them of black-clad people doing whatever. He could feel the beat of the deep bass in whatever music was playing. Boy, did these people have an odd taste in music. Four explained to them that this area below them was The Pit; the center of life at Dauntless.

'Looks fun,' Blaze thought as they continued on the little tour Four was taking them on.

When they reached the area that they'd be sleeping in for the next ten weeks, Blaze could finally say he'd found something familiar within these new walls. Everything was out in the open; girls and guys together in the same room. Candor was all about honesty and not much of modesty. So far the highlight of today was getting to burn his old clothes and look rad as hell in Dauntless Black.

Of course the fun continued when they went to get food.

"Damn, our clothes suck, we're gonna have to go shopping," Andrea commented with a grimace as she observed the numerous Dauntless in various dark clothing. Blaze mirrored her expression as they took a seat near the Stiff. Blaze mentally noted to start calling her Tris.

Blaze ate in silence, his eyes scanning the room, not quite sure what he was looking for. His attention came back to the table when the Stiff -Tris- asked Four if he was Dauntless-born or not. The incredulous look on his face was amusing and Blaze grinned and looked to Andrea who was shaking her head.

"He has got a secret," he sing-songed quietly to her. Andrea grabbed her cup, and raised one of her shapely eyebrows.

"You eat a behavioral studies book before coming here?" She questioned, sarcasm obvious in her tone.

"Sounds like something an Erudite would do," Blaze chuckled. Andrea studied his features for a moment.

"When you don't have that 'I'm secretly up to no good' smirk on your face, you look very boyish," she comments, taking a drink again. "Innocent, I mean. Your features are almost like a gentle-looking girl's." Blaze had heard this type of drivel before.

"Explain," he said simply. Andrea put her cup down excitedly and turned where she sat, so either leg was on each side of the bench. She grinned and looked over Blaine's face once more.

"Your face is round, but your cheeks and jaw are not lost in the roundness, and your eyes are large but angled like a cat's," Andrea explained. Blaze had never heard an explanation for his supposed innocent-face. "But it's your mouth that makes or break it. The simplest quirk of your lips and then you look very mischievous." Andrea smiled fondly as she finished her explanation.

"Freckles don't help either," Blaze added as an afterthought to her words. She snorted and smirked at him.

"Definitely not," she agreed.

The cafeteria suddenly grew quiet when a man who stood above the cafeteria, stared down at them and placed his hands on the railing. "Initiates, stand." The iniates did as they were told in a matter of seconds. "You have chosen the Warrior Faction, tasked with the defense and protection of our people and our walls." Ooh, the Warrior faction had a nice ring to it. Blaze lightly elbowed Andrea's arm.

"Dude, we're warriors," Andrea muttered before Blaze could open his mouth. Blaze had pretty much tuned out the rest of the speech and he nodded, a smile growing on his lips.

He was going to be Dauntless.

A rush of adrenaline coursed through him as the people around him began to cheer and applaud. Andrea was hopping up and down beside him and they shared similar smiles; smiles of excitement and hype like the rest of the crowd. Some initiates were lifted into the air by the Dauntless and passed along in a crowd surf. Dauntless really were crazy, huh?


	2. Metso Piano

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaze gets a feel for how things will flow at Dauntless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We apologize in advance because Blaze is apparently a jerk. ._.

Blaze strolled next to Andrea almost tiredly. The hype in the cafeteria had kind of drained them all. Andrea looked nearly dead on her feet; she was basically sleepwalking, her eyes drooping closed as she walked. Blaze yawned and Andrea mimicked the gesture.

Fortunately, when they returned to their sleeping quarters, there were more clothes waiting for them. Blaze didn't mind this, considering he felt too lazy at the moment to go through the process of picking out clothes.

Once at their respective beds, Blaze, quite ungracefully, flopped onto his. He unzipped the jacket he was wearing and slid it off. He took a peek at Andrea's bed, who was across from his. She was already curled comfortably under the blanket. Blaze smirked and followed her lead.

All around the room, the rustling of clothes and bed sheets along with dim chatter, was the only noise. This soon faded and the lights turned off. With a sigh, Blaze closed his eyes.

"Goodnight, Andrea," he whispered.

Blaze awoke with a start at the sound of Four's voice and the lights flashing on. He sat up and sighed, sitting hunched over with a half-assed glare. Andrea stared back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Someone's not a morning person, I see," she comments with a grin. Blaze narrowed his eyes at her as he slid out of bed and began to get dressed.

"I hate waking up," Blaze groaned. "Mornings are for losers." Andrea laughed in response.

Four led all if the transfers from their dorms, down tonthe pit. Blaze trekked quietly next to Andrea, not quite awake. Once they were down at the pit, Blaze noticed the man from yesterday sitting on something, who'd told them to jump off the ledge; Eric, he thought. He was eyeing them all critically and Blaze was unashamedly staring. They caught eyes. Blaze did not break eye contact. Eric smirked.

"Down here in the pit is where you'll be training. You'll be trained separately from Dauntless-born but ranked together," Four explained, calmly pacing back and forth. He took each step deliberately. "The first part is physical and we'll be pushing your bodies to the breaking point. Second is mental, again, breaking point. You'll be facing all of your worse fears. This training will determine where you fit in here at Dauntless."

Eric chose then to speak up. "It also determines whether you get cut," he said quite pleasantly. Note the sarcasm. A chatter broke out. Blaze licked his lips. Cut? What the actual-

"Cut?" Christina said, sounding incredulous.

"You get to choose us, now we get to choose you," Eric replied, locking eyes with Blaze again. Blaze couldn't help but let a sly grin creep onto his face. "If you can't pass training, then you don't belong here." Four looked irritated as Eric spoke. Eric shrugged nonchalantly.

 

Blaze was excited. He jogged enthusiastically next to Andrea. "This is fun, isn't it?" He said as they rounded a corner. It had been a 3 days. The most they'd done was exercising and lame sparring with some punching bags.

"Um, if you're maniac, which I'm guessing you are," she retorted. They had changed clothes, so now Andrea was wearing baggy black pants with elastic bottoms and a crop top. Blaze wore similar pants, except his hung low on his hips. His shirt was simply solid black and it rode up a bit at the waist so his mid-drift was clearly visible. "Nice v-line," Andrea chuckled. Blaze huffed.

"Nice belly button." He stuck his tongue out before accelerating with a laugh. He passed by Peter.

"Don't be an ass!"Andrea called out. Blaze spotted Four and Eric. Eric was approaching the combat mat. Blaze was pretty sure it wasnt actually called the combat mat, but he also didn't know what it was called, and he was positiveit was for fighting. Eric said something to Four. In response, the dark eyed man shook his head. Unfortunately, Eric seemed to have already made up his mind.

"First Jumper!" Eric yelled. Blaze came to a halt. "In the ring." Oh. So that's what it is called. Blaze warily made his way to the ring, eyeing Eric the whole time. Eric glanced around for a second. Was he going to make Blaze fight someone? Blaze mentally perked at this possibility. Hitting someone without getting in trouble was a plus.

"Second Jumper," called Eric. Blaze raised an eyebrow. Really? How creative. Give him the Stiff, the weakest one here. Tris had been with the punching bags and was reluctantly stepping into the ring. Blaze cocked his head to the right and grinned. "Time to fight." Blaze bounced on his feet. Tris was nervous and Blaze felt a little bad so he toned down his smile.

"How long do we fight?" Blaine asked, looking to Eric.

"Until one of you can't continue," was the immediate response. Well that sounded fun.

"Or until one of you concedes," Four interjected, stepping forward. Eric smirked smugly.

"Under the old rules; New rules, no one concedes," Eric explained. Four grinned humorlessly and looked at Eric. Blaze watched, hoping maybe they'd start fighting or something.

"Really? Lose them on the first fight?"

"A brave man never surrenders," Eric said confidently. Four grinned, amused this time.

"Lucky for you , those weren't the rules when we fought," he retorted. The smirk disappeared from Eric's face and Blaze stifled a grin and looked away. Tris was glancing nervously from Blaze to their instructors.

"Fight hard, you'll be scored on this," Eric said with obvious irritation. Probably because he just got majorly burned, which caused Blaze to smile. He faced Tris, who was definitely not going to make a move toward him.

He cautiously approached and she backed away. She kept backing away until she eventually stepped off the ring. Blaze dropped his position and smiled sympathetically at her. He took a step back and nodded. With a glance at Christina, Tris walked back into the ring.

After a moment, she took the first swing, which Blaze promptly dodged. He landed a punch to the side of her face and she stumbled. Blaze tilted his head and and aimed a high-kick that hit its mark. Blaze always did prefer to his legs. Tris sort of rushed at him so he copied her. They were the same height, so they locked up easily. Blaze brought his knee up to her gut and Tris crumpled in on herself. Blaze kicked her in the temple and she collapsed. Blaze paused and looked up. Eric looked strangely pleased.

"Was that so hard?" Eric said, sounding pleasantly triumphant as he looked to Four. "Fight's over. Get changed. Training's done for the day." Blaze crouched down and prodded at Tris.

"Heya Stiff, you okay?" Christina was in the ring in less than a second. Tris stood with Christina's help. She was holding the side of her face, which was quickly purpling.

"She's gonna need an icepack," Andrea commented. Blaze kept silent as they walked back to the dorm. "Blaze, you alright?" Blaze raised an eyebrow, finger curling pointlessly in his hair.

"Um, duh? Why wouldn't I be? I'm not the one who just kicked the shit out of; sorry about that Tris!" Blaze tried for a friendly smile, but Tris looked so dejected that he didn't bother.

"Eric seems like an ass," Christina muttered. Andrea nodded in vigor. Blaze hummed.

"I think Eric is pretty hot," he said. "He's got that 'sexy sociopath' look going for him..." He trailed off at the weird looks he was getting.

"You've got trashy taste," Andrea laughed. Blaze shrugged because she was right. His track record with boyfriends could use some work.

When Blaze came from the shower, Andrea and Christina were mostly dressed and sitting with Tris. Blaze went over to his bed and grabbed a thin, sleeveless jacket that zipped down instead of up. He pulled on his pants and then the jacket. Experimenting with the zipper, Blaze walked over to the three girls.

"I'm never going to make it," Tris sighed, holding the icepack to her cheekbone.

"Nonsense," Andrea disagreed. Tris gave her a look.

"I'm the weakest one here," Tris continued.

"True," Blaze agreed. Christina glared at him.

"Then you'll be most improved," Christina countered. Blaine nodded.

"Also very true," he said, settling for letting the zipper be up just under his ribcage. His entire navel was visible this way. "Come on, you can't give up this early in the game." He sat down next to Tris.

"You're Candor, you're not supposed to lie," Tris muttered weakly.

"I was Candor and I'm not lying." Christina sat down across from Tris. Andrea plopped down as well. She looked Blaze up and down.

"Nice freckles," she teased, referring to the prominent array of freckles across Blaze's pale stomach. And the rest of his body. Blaze rolled his eyes.

"Nice..." Blaze assessed Andrea, searching for something. "Yeah, I got nothing."

"I think my parents would let me come back," Al said, like an afterthought. He and Will had been chilling across the room. Will shook his head.

"No, doesn't work like that," he responded. A sorrowful sigh sounded.

"Even if my parents would take me back...." Tris began.

"You wouldn't belong there anymore?" Blaze finished, feeling sombre. Tris looked at him and nodded. He nodded back. "I get that feeling."

"Well this got depressing," Andrea announced. Christina stood up.

"We're Dauntless now, so you know what? Let's get tattoos!" she suggested.

At the tattoo shop, their little group broke off and sepearted and Blaze's eyes were trailing up and down the various designs. Of course, there were ideas already swimming in his mind. Wings, a spread of wings across somewhere... Blaze licked his lips. Definitely wings. Beneath his belly button. More specifically, the space between the juts of his hip bones. Maybe he should get the Candor scales as well, over his heart.

He should get piercings after this as well.

"You fit in here almost naturally." Blaze was startled out of his thoughts, but he did not flinch. Instead, he simply looked up to meet the piercing gaze of Eric. "It's like you were born here..." Blaze tilted his head, hands settling in his hips.

"My mother was Dauntless, my father was Erudite." Blaze shrugged. "Candor is boring..." He picked up a transparent plate that had a large wingspan. "What do you think?" Blaze smirked, lowering the template down to his desired spot. Before Eric could response, he turned away and approached an artist.

He glanced back at Eric, who was still watching him. Blaze turned back to the woman in front of him, a grin growing on his face. "This one," he said cheerfully.

Blaze waited outside the shop for the rest of his clique to emerge from the tattoo shop. He was leaning against a pillar, new tattoo peaking from under his pants and new piercings clearly visible. He'd gotten snake bites(which didn't help his lip-licking problem) and his bellybutton, as if he wasn't drawing enough attention to his abdomen already.

"Wow, Blaze, you didn't hold back," Andrea said slowly as she spotted him. Blaze couldn't see any visible tattoos on her at the moment. She'd only gotten gotten a left nostril ring.

"Actually, I did hold back," Blaze huffed. "I was going to get a lot more piercings and a side-shave." Blaze gestured to his nearly waist-length hair. Candor had always been irritated by his refusal cut it to regulation. And Alice's refusal as well, but only for a few months. She'd been preparing to leave for Amity though.

"A side-shave?"

"Yeah, just shaving off a section of my hair on the side," Blaze explained. He grabbed a chunk of his hair and pulled it back, pinning it. "It'll have a look like this."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't," Andrea snorted. "You've got all that hair, dude. It's great. Don't cut it." Blaze crossed his arms.

Finally, Tris and the rest if the group all emerged. Tris looked a bit troubled. Blaze noted to ask her what was up later.

The sound of shots firing resounded in the open air. Pale fingers pulled a trigger. Again and again, each bullet hitting its mark perfectly each time. All the dummies that'd been fired at were hit the same spots: the head and where the heart would be on a real person. A small laugh escaped Blaze's lips as he fired again. He liked this whole shooting thing very much.

"That's a good shot," Eric sounded behind him. Blaze smirked.

"I know, right?" he drawled. Andrea giggled next to him and she leaned over and elbowed him in the side.

"Don't sass the instructors," she mockingly scolded. "What did I say about being an ass?"

"What? I was simply agreeing." Blaze sucked the corner of his bottom lip into his mouth. He was kind of regretting getting those lip rings.

"Let's take a jog!" Four called out. Blaze whipped his goggles off and stretched.

"I was starting to get bored," he commented. He unbuttoned his bulletproof vest and slid it off. "Also this thing is too hot." Andrea rolled her eyes. "You keep doing that, your eyes are gonna roll right out of your head."

They were soon jogging, and Blaze had turned it into some race that only he was aware of. He was jogging behind Edward, that strapping, young blonde. What? Edward was pretty nice looking.

Four came to a halt and spoke to some man about the factionless that they were obviously looking at. Blaze fell back into the group, knowing he could reclaim his spot. He noticed Peter had maneuvered next to Tris.

"See them Tris? That's gonna be your new family; go say hello."

Wow. Blaze hoped Eric put him in the ring with Peter so he could kick his ass. "Hey, don't be a little shit," Blaze growled, purposely bumping into Peter as he passed. Peter scoffed and glared at Blaze. But, as Blaze suspected, he did nothing. "Bullies, man...." He found Andrea and stood next to her. She looked contemplative.

"You're moving far up the score board," she said after a moment. "You could be number one." Blaze shrugged.

"I don't think I could beat Edward physically; he's number one for now," he replied. Four yelled for them to start running again, and they were heading back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I(Dane) took some creative liberties with this one because I don't have the book for Divergent. I only have the movie. After this chapter, the progression/time flying is going to slow down a bit. There's a lot of stuff we gotta fit into here before it climaxes and we move onto Insurgent.
> 
> Speaking of Insurgent, oh my god, that movie.


	3. Crescendo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eric and Blaze interact and Four is a know it all ft. Andrea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3 years later... Here's an update! :/ Sorry about that

There was no denying that Blaze had a hopeless infatuation with Eric. To deny it would be lying, and Blaze could not tell a lie. Blaze found himself eyeing the intense-looking man as he trained. During training was pretty much the only time he saw the blonde. It was frustrating. Blaze had half a mind to actively seek Eric out. It wasn't as if they trained all day, so he had the time and definitely the patience.

The glare he was giving the mirror in front of him was getting him strange looks from others. He was having a bit of trouble getting his brush through his hair. Blaze really wanted to hack all of it off, but he knew he'd regret it as soon as he did it.

Also, Andrea had forbidden him from doing so.

With a frustrated huff, Blaze dropped his arms and gave up trying to brush his hair. He ran his fingers through it a few times and left the dorms. He didn't have a particular destination in mind, he just wanted to wander around a bit, see if he could find Andrea.

Blaze found himself browsing through section upon section of various clothing. He'd taken a liking to translucent shirts, shirts with no sleeves and ridiculously tight pants that were still somehow comfortable. All of this, of course, in black. He then soon found himself back in front of a mirror, tracing his eyes with eyeliner. He quirked an eyebrow at the finished result. Instead of pale, the green of his eyes was vibrant and seemed to glow. They looked like cats' eyes.

After switching out his shoes for combat boots, Blaze trekked down to the Pit and then to their training area. No one was there. Good. He approached one of the dummies they used for fighting. He looked it up and down before aiming a practiced kick to the side of its head. He let out a startled gasp when the head flew off. "Shit!" Blaze jogged to where it'd landed and rolled his eyes. "Stupid piece of shit; are you trying to get me in trouble?" He went for a scolding tone. He placed the head back on the dummy and nodded. Good as new.

Blaze sighed. In a few days it'd be Visiting Day. He wondered if his parents would come. Speaking of family, Blaze was pretty sure he had an older brother who was Dauntless. Maybe he died and that's why Blaze hadn't seen him yet; but there were a lot of people here so...

Blaze's eyes widened but he did not startle when there was suddenly a large hand in his hair. "I haven't seen natural red hair in a while," Eric said. "Around here, if someone's hair is red, it's because they dyed it." Fingers carded through Blaze's hair and then balled into a fist to pull his head back. Blaze was now staring up into Eric's face.

"Oh, hi," Blaze said smoothly, a grin sliding into place. Eric looked unamused- as usual.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Oh nothing really," Blaze said quickly. "Just, kicking the heads off of dummies." He paused. Eric raised an eyebrow.

"You kicked the head off of one of these?" Eric gestured to the one right in front of Blaze. Blaze nodded as best he could. Eric released his hair.

To prove his words, Blaze poked the head and it easily fell backwards. "See?" Eric looked amused.

"Fight me." Eric begins to take off his shoes and walks over to the ring.

"What?" Blaze was so confused as he followed Eric to the ring.

"Fight me. Are you deaf? Do you need a hearing aid?" Eric snapped.

"No need to get your panties in a bunch, sweetheart," Blaze retorted. He licked his lips and stepped into the ring. He noticed that Eric had the same habit as he did when it came to messing with his lip-rings.

"What is it with you Candor and your inability to shut up?" Eric demanded, clearly agitated. Blaze smirks and tilts his head.

"You make it so easy to irritate you, that I honestly," Blaze laughs because he is absolutely hilarious, "cannot resist." Eric lunges at Blaze and the redhead stumbles backward. Eric smiles wickedly, looking like a Cheshire cat. Blaze's mouth twitches into a scowl before he can stop himself.

"Rude," he managed to say that in his usual snarky inflection. With a natural precision, Blaze swung his foot which, as he suspected, Eric caught. In a quick sequence of movement, Blaze used this, plus the little momentum he still had, to lift himself off the ground in a kick that landed against Eric's temple. Eric released Blaze's foot and groaned in pain. Blaze fell to the ground and he caught himself and rolled to a stand. Eric was disoriented, his pupils not dilated correctly to fit the lighting. No doubt he had a concussion.

Of course, even with a concussion, he was going to continue the fight.

Eric moved with surprising grace as he attacked. As graceful as someone like Eric could be, anyway. He was more ruthless than pretty in his attack pattern. Like, for example, kneeing Blaze in the gut amd tossing him like he weighed nothing across the ring. What a jerk.

Blaze was hit across the face and he faltered at the blow, feeling incredibly lightheaded. Was tackling him really necessary? Blaze hit the ground, Eric on top of him, and vaguely thought he'd like to end up in a position like this again but under better circumstances. Now his head hurt.

Eric had him pinned to the ground, which was honestly so unnecessary, and he was looking at Blaze with a dazed look. Blaze really hoped he didn't choose now to pass out; he was pretty sure the blue-eyed male would not wake back up if he did. Eric began to nod, a grin spreading across his face again. Even on the verge of fainting, Eric still managed to look ridiculously sinister. "That was fun," he said. Blaze couldn't help but let out a laugh, and his smirk returned.

"Only a Dauntless would consider getting a concussion fu-" Blaze was interrupted very unexpectedly by a mouth. Said mouth was on top of his mouth, and this was called kissing, right? Well damn. Eric groaned in frustration and moved back. He appeared contemplative.

"This process was a lot easier to achieve in my mind. It seems that I did not take into account how both of us having rings on our bottom lips would effect kissing," Eric muttered, sitting up to take said lip rings out. Blaze raised an eyebrow. Eric sounded like a damn Erudite.

Before he could say a thing, Eric pulled him up into a sitting position and reconnected their lips. Blaze startled at the force of it, hands flying up to rest on Eric's shoulders as a brace. Braze abruptly found himself lying on the ground, Eric getting to his feet. Raising an eyebrow, Blaze waited for Eric to say something. Eric cleared his throat.

"You're not supposed to be in here after training hours," the blonde said calmly.

A giddy feeling settled in Blaze; boy, did he have a story to tell to Andrea later.

\- -------  
Andrea choked on her drink, and coughed as she tried to catch her breath. Blaze watched her warily as she cleared her throat excessively. "I'm sorry, you kissed Eric? Evil, asshole Eric?" she hissed, leaning toward Blaze. They were in the cafeteria for dinner, so they could not speak loudly of this. The redhead nodded, eyes glinting, lips spreading into a smirk. Andrea regarded him for a moment before grinning and shaking her head. "Is he a good kisser though? Tell me, was it difficult to kiss with those rings in the way?" Andrea gestured to Blaze's face.

"What do you think, Andy?" Blaze scoffed and licked his lips. He smiled slyly. "He is very dominant, very alpha male." His smile turned genuine. "And he is interested in me."

Andy regarded him for a moment. "So, did you do, ya know?" A mischievous grin formed on her face. Blaze stabbed his fork into the piece of chocolate cake. He playfully shoved her with perhaps a bit too much force.

"Modesty is dishonest and no; we did nothing besides making out. My precious virginity is still intact." Blaze pointed his fork at her. "I'll be sure that you're the first person to know."

"I better be," Andrea snorted.

....  
His fists tightener in their grip on Peter's shirt as Blaze repeatedly brought his knee up into the taller boy's gut. Peter managed to grab his leg and he lifted Blaze before tossing him across the ring much like he did to Tris yesterday. Blaze growled in frustration when Peter's arms were around his throat in a chokehold. He clawed at his arms for a moment before forcing himself into a stand. Blaze brought all his weight down, bringing Peter back down with him. Peter cursed loudly and released him. There was no doubt in Blaze's mind that either Peter's mouth or lip was bleeding profusely.

Blaze spun around, his fist clenched and ready. He hit Peter right in the jaw; the taller of the two fell, but he was not done. So, Blaze landed his "signature chin kick" ( name courtesy of Andrea), a yell of "Bastard!" escaping his lips as he did so. Peter fell over, unconscious. Eric was clapping, something he did every time Blaze won a match. So far, Blaze had not lost. Blaze grinned at him and sort of curtsied. He did not miss the displeased look on Four's face as the instructor stood next to Eric.

"Always a job well done, initiate," said Eric with a glance over at Four, his expression smug.

Four was giving Blaze a strange look as the room began to empty out. As Blaze walked by, intending to catch up with Andrea, Christina and Tris, Four grabbed his arm and pulled him back. The room was now empty, except for them. "You seem to be Eric's favourite," Four said, dark eyes staring intently at Blaze. The young redhead refused to feel uncomfortable.

"And Tris seems to be yours," Blaze retorted, his hands coming to rest on his hips.

"No, see, this is different because I'm helping Tris," countered Four. "Eric is not helping you; he is ruining you. I can see it. You're not really this cruel, Blaze." Blaze scoffed and pulled his arm from Four's grip.

"I hardly call kicking Peter's ass, cruel," he laughed without humor. His pale eyes were focused on the wall behind Four.

"My point is, someone like you," Four put a strange emphasis on 'like you,' "should not get involved with him." It was now Four's turn to be held under a scrutinizing gaze, as Blaze's faded green eyes locked with his. After a few moments, Blaze turned and left without a single word.

Blaze thought about his aptitude test as he paced quickly through the hall. The Erudite who had tested him, Eleanor, had willingly entered in Dauntless as his result. His real results had been Candor, Dauntless and Erudite. He often wondered why she had not turned him in, and perhaps it was because she was Divergent herself.

"Initiate!" Blaze snapped to attention. He looked up to see Eric leaning against the wall just a few feet away. Blaze raised an eyebrow as he approached the Dauntless leader. Once he was in range, Eric's fingers were immediately btangled in the messy curls and waves of Blaze's hair. "You still have blood on your hand," Eric commented. Blaze looked down at his hand.

"Yeah," Blaze sighed. It was drying, sticking to his skin.

"Why have you not gotten showered yet? Unless, you haven't been back to the dorms..." Eric tilted his head. "Why is that?"

"I got held up by Four," Blaze responded easily.

"Really?" Eric said in an annoyed tone. He considered Blaze, fingers running absentmindedly through vermilion strands. He removed his hand from Blaze's hair and began to walk. "Follow me." Blaze kept Eric's pace.

"Where are we going, oh mighty Dauntless Leader?" he asked. Eric snorted and shot him a half-impressed, half-amused look. Blaze smirked.

"You have got a mouth on you." Eric shook his head. "Talking to me, a Dauntless Leader like that.... We're going to my apartment." Blaze hummed in response. He wondered what Eric's home was like. It probably had knives hanging on the walls or something. Eric seemed to have a weird thing for knives. He was always fiddling with one in his hands.

"You don't have a knife kink I need to know about, do you?" Blaze questions casually. This elicits a laugh from Eric.

"Blaze," Eric chuckled. "Shut up."


	4. Mesto Forte

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War-Games and Knife throwing. Oh my.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, two of us were in the Hospital and the other one of us was just MIA for awhile, so here's a twice as long chapter because we're sorry this took so long. If I hadn't been in the Hospital, this would not have taken a month. We've already started chapter 5. Ayway, here you go...

So, there weren't any knives hanging from the ceiling, nor were there any attached to the walls. In fact, Eric's apartment was pretty plain, furniture and decorations wise. On the ceiling in Eric's bedroom, was the Dauntless flame. Like any other Dauntless, the room was full of the colour black. The sheets on his bed were black, the carpet was black, most of the furniture was black, or at least some varying shade.

Blaze stood in front of the bathroom mirror, running his fingers through wet hair. He'd just taken a shower. Eric had offered him a shirt to borrow, and he didn't bother with giving Blaze pants. Blaze was short and thin and Eric was.... not. Blaze grinned at the thought. Eric was most definitely not. Blaze flopped his hand around, amused at how much longer the sleeves were on this shirt.

"What are you doing in here?" Eric demanded, flinging the bathroom door open. Blaze waved, the sleeve covering his hand flying around.

"Can I keep this shirt?" Blaze asked with a smile. He raised his hands up, but they weren't visible of course because of the longer sleeves. Eric made a noise that was mixed between a scoff and a groan.

"You look stupidly adorable," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Come out here." Blaze saluted.

"Aye aye, Almighty Dauntless Leader." Blaze practically skipped after Eric, who led them to the kitchen. There was a table and two chairs on either side. Blaze sat in the one facing away from the kitchen entrance. "You never answered if I could keep the shirt." Eric sat in the chair opposite him. He observed Blaze with a appraising look.

"Can you lie?" Eric questioned, sounding serious.

"Every human has the mind capacity to lie," Blaze responded almost instantly. He licked his lips.

"That's not what I meant." Eric crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"If I really wanted to, I suppose I could..." Blaze trailed off. "It's second nature for me not to lie, however." Eric taps his fingers on the darkly coloured table.

"If someone asks where you got the shirt, what do you say?" Eric stopped tapping on the table.

"Why would someone ask...?" Blaze wondered.

"Everyone can already make a well-educated assumption that you enjoy wearing skin tight clothing." Eric makes an amused grin for a second and then he is serious again. "This shirt is too long and baggy, which will be blatantly obvious. It will be noticed significantly more, at least by your friends."

Blaze nodded. "Andrea would definitely ask, now that I think about it," he said. But, Andrea already knew about this, so... Blaze tapped his fingers against his thigh. Eric leaned forward, laced his fingers together and raised a studded eyebrow

"If someone asks where you got the shirt, what do you say?" Said Eric once again. Blaze leaned back in the chair, and crossed his legs.

"I got this shirt..." Blaze began. He paused for a moment. "There wasn't anything in my size, but I really wanted it." Blaze licked his lips. He'd never lied before, at least nothing he can distinctly remember.

Slowly, a sly smile formed on Eric's face. "Well done, initiate." Blaze's mouth slipped into an irritated smirk.

"How could you have any doubt I'd do well, oh mighty Dauntless Leader?" Blaze stood, his hands planted firmly on the table. "I'm learning all of the bad from the best." An intense silence fell. Any trace of humor had left the room. Blaze glared into Eric's eyes; pale green on grey-blue. Eric stood and approached Blaze. The redhead did not back down. His glared didn't falter for a second and soon enough, he was face to face with Eric.

"I'd watch my mouth, if I were you," Eric said lowly.

"Good thing you're not me then," retorted Blaze. "I do what I want." Eric grabbed Blaze by the arms and tugged him closer.

"We're not trying to train rebels here." Eric shook his head. "You're going to get yourself into trouble." Blaze smirked.

"Trouble already found me..." Blaze pulled out of Eric's hands. "He's a good kisser." The twitch in Eric's jaw meant Blaze needed to run.

With a small laugh, Blaze darted out of the room. He'd barely missed Eric lunging for him. "Goddammit, Blaze! Don't you take anything serious?"

Blaze took a lot of things serious, but this definitely wasn't one of those times. He looked around the living room for his clothes. He'd never put his pants back on. He was running around here in just Eric's shirt. With a sigh, Blaze entered Eric's bedroom. The blonde man entered hardly a second after. "How very subtle." Eric raised an eyebrow. Blaze looked over his shoulder to roll his eyes at Eric.

"Oh shut up," Blaze huffed. "I'm looking for my clothes." Blaze let out a startled gasp when Eric roughly pushed him, causing him to fall onto Eric's bed. Eric quickly climbed onto the mattress along with him, hovering above Blaze, his expression intense... As it usually was. Eric's hand was pressing against Blaze's chest, willing him to lie down. Swallowing thickly, Blaze complied and Eric's hand slid higher until his fingers curled around Blaze's throat.

"You have this knack," Eric began in a low tone, leaning closer to Blaze's face. Blaze inadvertently licked his lips, forgetting for a moment his snake bites. Eric watched the movement before continuing. "This knack for simultaneously getting on my nerves and impressing me."

"Since you love your honesty so much, how about you answer me this," Eric shifted a bit above Blaze, his fingers tightening slightly against the boy's throat. "Are you riling me up on purpose? Does it please you to see me irritated?" Blaze abruptly sat up and Eric barely backed away in time before their heads collided. Green stared into blue for a few fleeting seconds. Blaze knew he could change the mood here with the simplest lowering of his gaze.

"You look very hot when you're angry," he said instead and slides backwards, away from Eric and off the bed. "I should go before people start worrying." Eric watched him walk towards the door, his expression moody as always. Blaze grabbed his pants off the dresser. Once at the doorway, Blaze smiled brightly at him and waved his fingers as he walked out into the hallway.

Once out in the hall, Blaze pulled his pants on. He crossed his arms and began the walk back to the dorms.

Blaze spotted Andrea, Tris and the others as soon as he walked into the cafeteria. They weren't sitting near Four this time, thankfully. He did spot their instructor, though, and they made dreaded eye contact. Four's expression was unreadable. Blaze swallowed and averted his gaze and he hurried over to his friends.

He slipped into a seat next to Christina and across from Andrea. Her dark eyes widened? "Where have you been, angry red?" Andrea reached across the table to swat at him with her fork. "You had me worried!" Blaze chuckled and grabbed the spoon mid-swing.

"I'll tell you... Later." He gave her a pointed look. Andrea stared blankly at him. A look of realization flickered across her face.

"Ohhh, alright." Andrea nodded and smiled knowingly. Christina looked between the two curiously.

"You guys are hiding something," she said. Blaze smiled at her.

"Indeed we are," he retorted, grabbing a fork and stealing food from Andrea's plate.

"That's not your shirt is it?" Tris asked suddenly from next to Christina. Blaze slowed his chewing. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, that isn't your shirt, is it?" Will chimed in. "You tend to go for much tighter clothing choices." Blaze shrugged and brought his hand up to curl a lock of his hair around a finger.

"I didn't realize my fashion preferences were under such scrutiny," he muttered after a moment. He gave Andrea a panicked look. She knew that lying and deflection were difficult for him to do. She straightened up.

"I've been thinking of getting a sleeve," she announced. Everyone, excluding Blaze, gave her a confused look. She rolled her eyes. "It's a collage of tattoos that fully covers an arm. If you're gonna be Dauntless, learn the lingo." She had a playful grin. Blaze fell himdelft swell with pride. She learned that from him, of course.

The conversation died down into smaller talks. Blaze eyed Tris, thinking about the fight she'd had with Peter the other day. "How are your bruises?" He asked her. She seemed startled that he'd asked.

"Oh um, they're not as bad now." She smiled uncertainly. Blaze could not help but smile back. She reminded him of his sister at times. They were both blonde and their personalities were fairly similar. He supposed Alice could have easily have chosen Abnegation as she did Amity.

She may have been a bit too vain for that, however, and Tris had a fieriness to her. Alice, however, was always calm, never angered. He missed her. He needed some calmness in his life right now. Eric had pissed him off, but now that Blaze thought about it, he wasn't sure why he'd gotten so angry... That was a lie. He knew why. He didn't want Four to be right.

...  
Sleep alluded Blaze. He laid laid in bed for what felt like forever. A few beds over, Tris finally slipped into hers. A few seconds later, people burst into the dorm and Eric's deep voice resounded across the room. "Everybody up!" Blaze groaned and rolled out of bed. He had no pants on and was still in Eric's oversized shirt. "Have you gone deaf, Stiff?" There he went again, yelling at Tris. Blaze rolled his eyes and chose to glare at the blonde Dauntless leader. How dare he interrupt his not-sleep.

"You have five minutes to get dressed and meet us by the tracks," Eric stated. "We're going on a field trip." Us? Blaze then noticed Four. Oh.

Blaze pulled on his pants and some comfortable boots before jogging out of the room with Andrea, who hadn't said a single word. She was sleepy. Hopefully the run would wake her up.

Blaze noticed Tris was wincing as she ran. He'd figured she'd been more hurt from the fight with Peter than she had let on. Once at the tracks, there was a pile of guns waiting for them. He grabbed one and examined it. It obviously wasn't a real gun you'd use in battle. From beside him, Eric grabbed one of the guns as well. Blaze took a gun for Andrea and turned away quickly. He heard an aggravated sigh and couldn't help but grin. Annoying Eric was too easy.

"You call these guns?" Molly muttered to Peter, sounding unimpressed. Eric pointed his gun in her direction and fired, hitting her in the leg. She dropped with a shout of pain.

"Neuro-stem dart; simulates the pain of a real bullet." explained Eric. "Lasts for a minute. How much time is left?" The question is directed at Four.

"Any minute now," answered Four. "Why don't you learn the train schedule." Eric shrugged.

"I don't see why I should when I've got you to do it," he said, shoving Four in the shoulder.

A few moments later, the train was rolling down. Eric hopped on first and opened the doors. More people piled on and Blaze hopped on after Andrea.

"Tonight we'll be playing capture the flag with us as captains," Eric said as everyone jumped on. "There will be equal amount of transfers and Dauntless-borns. Let's start dividing transfers first."

"You can go first," Four muttered. Eric shrugged.

"Edward."

"I'll take the Stiff," Four responded after a quick observation. Eric snorted.

"Interesting strategy; picking the weak ones so you'll have someone to blame when you lose?" Eric raised an eyebrow at Four. It was Four's turn to Shrug.

"Something like that."

Blaze frowned. Both of their instructors were jerks, apparently. "Peter," Eric chose next.

"Blaze." Four lifted his hand to his mouth. Blaze tilted his head. Four's strategy definitely had nothing to do with them being weak. Eric gave Four a dark look and his mouth twitched.

“Molly.”

“Will,” said Four, biting his thumbnail.

“Al.”

“Drew.”

“Andrea."

"Christina."

"Last one is Myra, so she's with me." Eric did not sound happy about it. Blaze waved to Andrea and she made a sad face back.

After splitting up the Dauntless and getting off the train, they headed to the Ferris Wheel at the suggestion of Uriah. Blaze trailed behind Tris as they ran to the giant contraption. He observed the area as they ran. They were offensive as there wasn't much room for defending where they were. Before they attacked, however, they needed to find their flag.

“Can you believe people used to ride that thing for fun?” Will said, shaking his head, eyeing the red passenger cars dangling from the white wheel.  
“They must have been Dauntless,” Tris commented. Blaze nodded in agreement.

“A lame version of Dauntless,” laughed Christina. “A Dauntless Ferris wheel wouldn’t have cars. You would just hang on tight with your hands and good luck to you.”

They walked down the pier, taking solace in the clean and peaceful emptiness of the old buildings. Blaze smiled lightly and looked up at the bright moon in the dark sky. It was very relaxing out here.

“In ten minutes, the other team will pick their location,” Four announced, taking the flag out of his pocket. “I suggest you formulate a strategy. Mental preparedness is one aspect of your Dauntless training; arguably, the most important.” Will takes the flag from Four.

“Some people should stay here and guard, others should go scout the other team’s location,” he proposed. Blaze thought this was a fair idea, but apparently, Marlene did not.

“Yeah? You think?” Marlene took the flag from Will. “Who put you in charge, transfer?”

“No one, but someone’s got to do it.”

“Maybe we should try something more defensive plan; wait for them to come to us,” Christina suggested.

“No way, that’s the sissy way out,” said Uriah. “I vote we go all. Hide the flag well enough that they can’t find it.” Everyone burst into conversation. Blaze rolls his eyes. He figured that something like this might happen. He didn’t bother trying to give his two cents; no one would listen. He sighed and backed away from the arguing cluster.

He saw Tris walking off from the group. He raised an eyebrow and snuck after her. He tapped her on the shoulder once he caught her. "Where are you going?"

“Ferris Wheel,” she whispered. Blaze nodded, instantly getting what she was doing. She was going for higher ground to see if she could spot the opposing team’s flag. She was smart. As she hesitantly reached for a rung, Blaze was tapped on the shoulder. He stifled his gasp and turned his head to see Four. Four nodded in greeting before approaching Tris.

“Tris,” he whispered in a low voice. Blaze felt his cheeks heat up. Four was kind of attractive now that he really observed the instructor.

“Yes,” Tris said in reply. Blaze huffed. She hadn’t seemed the least bit startled by his arrival.

“I came to find out what you think you’re doing.”

“I’m seeking higher ground. I don’t think I’m doing anything.” Blaze can tell Four his smiling when he speaks again.

“All right. I’m coming.” They begin to climb up the ladder. Blaze sighed with a stupid grin on his face because those two were totally in to each other and yet completely oblivious. Aw.

Blaze could hear them talking but they were pretty high up. He noticed that Four kept glancing down, which was not such a good idea. He must be afraid of heights; people who are afraid of heights tend to check to see how far they are from the ground and calculate in their head if they’d die or not if they fell. He watches them as they make it to the platform. They paused there for a moment before Tris begins to climb higher. After a certain time, Tris points to something. Blaze can hardly see them and his head is tilted extremely far back. They begin to climb down and something goes wrong. Blaze’s eyes widened in horror when Tris shouted a very audible, “Four!” The crossbar she’d attempted to step on must have broken, because she was dangling in midair. Four yelled something to her in reply. Blaze couldn’t see what he was doing but a few moments later, the wheel begins to move. Blaze can hear Tris begin to laugh. She sounded giddy, borderline hysterical. She dropped from where she was holding on and rolled to the side, a car almost bearing down on her. Blaze sighed in relief.

He began to walk to her but Four beat him to it and pulled the blonde girl to her feet. Blaze grinned and turned away from them for a moment. He definitely needed these two to end up together. If not, he’d lose his mind with all this tension. They got back to the group and they formulated a plan. “Tris, Christina and Blaze will head up to the tower while the rest of us will distract the opponent from behind and the front.” It wasn’t a failsafe plan, but it could work in their favour. Blaze jogged next to Christina as they approached the enemy hiding spot.

“They’re here!” He heard someone shout. Almost immediately, shots began to rain out. Blaze dodged a few and jumped behind a wall. He leaned over and fired twice, hitting both marks. He got one person in the hand and the other in the shoulder. He ran around the corner and rolled to another wall. Across from him were Christina and Tris. He gestured for them to go on ahead.

“I’ll cover you,” he said. They nodded back at him. They went from behind the cover and moved forward as Blaine walked behind them and observed the area. He spotted Eric and some other Dauntless-borns. “Get back!” he yelled. They ran behind cover as he fired and hit the two Dauntless-borns. He fired at Eric the same time Eric fired at him. Blaze’s shot hit its mark but he had to do some evasive maneuvering to avoid getting hit by Eric’s shot. He ended up dropping his gun. Eric fired again but was met with a click. Blaze rolled to his feet. He raised and fired his gun and Eric dodged and moved closer to the redhead. Blaze backed away and continued to fire, and Eric used his empty gun to deflect the would-be bullets. Blaze was met with a click and threw the gun at Eric before rushing at the taller man. Eric grunted and fell back but caught himself. Blaze brought his knee up to Eric’s side but he was shoved away before he could make contact. Tris and Christina had already moved ahead, Blaze noticed. Eric did not. He was too focused on Blaze. A shot fires and lands in Eric’s leg. Eric keels down and grips his calf. Another shot fires and this one lands in his chest. Blaze turned around and spotted Four. He gave a thumb up just as Tris and Christina emerged from the tower window, glittery and glowing flag in hand. Blaze laughed. They had won.

..  
The "thunk " sound of knives impacting the targets was filling Blaze's head. He'd rather listen to gunshots any day. To Blaze's right was Al and to his left was Andrea. He frowned and glared at his target as Eric came walking down the line of initiates. He felt the leader's presence behind him. He knew Eric would stop behind him. There was no comment, though. Eric continued down the line and Blaze huffed out a breath. He pretended the target was Eric's face and suddenly his accuracy improved. His jaw ached and he realized he'd been clenching his teeth together.

To his right, Al was failing at even getting a knife to reach the target. Unfortunately, Eric noticed. On his way back across the row of initiates, he stopped next to Blaze and observed Al. Once again, Al's knife clanged to the ground about a foot away from the target. Eric scoffed. Four was standing by him as well.

"Well that was pathetic."

Blaze looked fixedly at his target and threw another knife as Al said, "It slipped." Eric was unimpressed.

"Well go get it!" Eric sounded aggravated. Blaze concluded that Eric was a sore loser. Al looked a bit worried.

"What, while they're still throwing?"

"Are you afraid, initiate?"

"Afraid of getting hit by an airborne knife, yeah, I am.” Mistake; saying that was a mistake.

"Everybody stop." Eric commanded. Blaze shifted his weight and rolled his eyes. He was going to do something awful and claim it was to teach them something bravery related. They weren't taking a walk, so no one was getting dangled over the Chasm. Eric pointed at the target with a knife. "Stand in front of the target." With defeat in his shoulders Al went to go stand in front of his target. Blaze could see where this was going.

"You're going to stand in front of the target while he," Eric looked to Four, "throws those knives. If you flinch, you're out." Four gave Eric a look before focusing on Al. Blaze chewed on his cheek as Four poised to throw his knife.

"Any idiot can stand in front of a target." Blaze wanted slap himself. Why couldn't he control his stupid mouth? Eric's intense gaze was now focused on the redhead. A studded eyebrow rose.

"Really?" said Eric. Blaze lifted his chin in defiance. "Then it should be easy for you to take his place." Eric looked expectantly at the target and pointed once more with his knife. The Dauntless leader was officially on Blaze's shit-list.

Blaze went to the target in easy strides. He stood there with his hands clasped together behind his back. Once again, he raised his chin in defiance. Blaze could see Four sigh before changing his stance. He threw a knife. Blaze blinked slowly and turned his head a bit to see it. It was wedged to his right by his arm. He looked back to Four.

"Oh, C'mon Four," Eric drawled. Four flipped a knife in his hand and made an irritated smirk. He threw the blade. This one was impaled to Blaze’s left, by his head. Blaze breathed out a stiff sigh. “You can get closer than that.” Blaze wanted to glare at Eric.

“Hm.” Four hummed and threw yet another knife. This one was hardly an inch above Blaze’s head. Blaze could feel his heart going a mile a minute, but he remained calm on the outside. Without warning, Four hurled another knife. Blaze blinked and opened his mouth. He tilted his head to side. Four had cut his ear.

“I would love to stay and see if the rest of you are as daring as he is,” said Eric, his voice smooth, “but I think that’s enough for today.” People start to pile out of the room. Eric kept his eyes on Blaze and Blaze looked pointedly at the wall, reigning in his anger. Four had cut him. On purpose, no doubt. Andrea and Tris approached him.

“Are you alright?” Tris asked him. He nodded slowly as he walked away from the target. “He cut me,” he said, bringing his hand up to his ear and pressing his fingers to the bloody part of his ear. Tris makes a strange face and turns to face Four.

“You cut him” she accused, a strange sense of anger in her voice. Four looked up from where he had been putting knives away. Blaze did not want to be there for the sexual tension that was going to ensue, so he grabbed Andrea by the arm and dragged her out of there.

“Hey, what was that all about?” Andrea asked. Blaze scoffed. “Those two have got some weird sexual tension going on between them; it’s annoying to witness, trust me. I’ve seen it in person many times now,” Blaze answered. He and Andrea turned a corner and there was Eric leaning against the wall. They both froze.

“Andrea, is it?” Eric pushed off of the wall. “I need to talk to Blaze; alone, I might I add.” Eric raised a studded eyebrow. Blaze licked his lips and looked to Andrea. “I’ll meet you in the Pit later,” he muttered. Andrea nodded slowly and as she walked away, kept her eyes on Eric until she had no choice but to turn and walk. The two remaining people in the hallway stood there for a moment before Eric sighed deeply.

“Look,” he started. He paused. Blaze tilted his head and Eric scratched his chin and looked away. “I’m.... sorry.”

“What?” Blaze was completely not expecting that. Eric looked annoyed.

“Stop making me repeat shit; I said I was sorry, damnit,” Eric hissed. Blaze lifted a hand to his chest.

“Whatever for?” he questioned innocently. He grinned like a jerk as Eric turned a light shade of pink.

“I know, sometimes, I let my position get to my head…” Eric huffed.

“Uh-huh, you do,” Blaze agreed. He stepped towards Eric and raised his finger like he was scolding a child. “Don’t treat me like I’m some inferior peasant, you asshole. That’s what really bothered me.” Eric huffed again.

“I realize this, you hot-head,” Eric retorted. “Now c’mon.”

“What?”

“You’re coming to my apartment with me.”


	5. Welcome to the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hey, faction before blood; and we're faction now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so filler, I swear this is the most filler thing I've ever written

"Do you think your parents will come to visit?" Andrea asked Blaze as he undid the French-braid he'd put in her hair last night. She was settled comfortably on his bed while he kneeled behind her, fingers carefully undoing each lock and strand. Blaze hummed to himself and shrugged.

"I don't know; my mom will probably show up. She was Dauntless," he answered. A pleasant silence went between the two before Blaze finally finished undoing the braid. He coursed his fingers through Andrea's loosened and wavy hair and continued humming. "All done." Andrea slid off of the bed and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Thanks."

"Do my eyeliner for me?" Blaze fell backwards, rolled over, reached over his bed and grabbed the pencil from amongst his small mess of belongings. Andrea chuckled.

"I can't believe you wear eyeliner," she laughed, taking the pencil from him as he sat up, arm outstretched. Blaze shrugged again.

"Makes my eyes noticeable," he said. He winked and grinned before closing his eyes.

"What were you humming earlier? When you were undoing my hair." Andrea asked curiously. Blaze thought for a moment before leaning forward. Andrea began to gently apply the black pencil around Blaze’s eyes.

With a lowered voice, he began, "Before my mother left Dauntless, her mother gave her these CDs from before the War. They have music from before the war." Andrea's eyes widened as Blaze leaned back with a small grin. “I’m sure I could sing the songs on them all by heart and I’m told my singing voice is lovely.”

"Attention!" Eric announced, startling Blaze and Andrea, who hadn't noticed he had come in. "If by some miracle, your family comes to visit you..." He scans the crowd and smirks. "Which I doubt…It's best not to seem too attached. We take faction before blood very seriously here."

Blaze sighed quietly and Andrea smiled reassuringly. "Do you really think your family will come?" she asked as they left the dormitory. Blaze winked at Eric as he passed and Eric's mouth twitched.

"I don't see why not," Blaze replied, stretching. He wasn’t sure why Andrea had asked him this again but he wasn’t going to be rude.  His back cracked and he winced. "I mean, my mother was Dauntless." Andrea nodded and chewed on her thumb.

"Dauntless is too intense for my Amity family..." Andrea looks over to the Pit, where they are headed. Now it made sense. She was worried her own family might not come and was… what was the word? Projecting? "I won't get my hopes up. I was also wondering..." Blaze raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"Yeah?"

"How much do you really like Eric?"

Blaze stopped mid-step. That was a good question. He continued walking. "At this point, it's more physical attraction. I mean," Blaze lowered his voice, "he brings me to his apartment, but we haven't slept together." Andrea nodded slowly, her eyes scanning the crowd in the Pit. Her eyes lit up at the sight of what Blaze realized must be her mother. They had the same dark hair and warm-coloured skin. Without so much a comment to Blaze, Andrea took off into the crowd and nearly tackled the woman in a hug.

Shaking his head, Blaze wandered around a bit, not actually looking for his parents. How angst would it be of him to watch everyone reunite with their families while he sulked? Blaze let out a yelp when he was tugged to the side and into someone's lanky arms. "I knew it was you, Blaze!" A laid back voice drawled in Blaze's ear. He was spun around and put face to face with a tall, dark haired, young man. Blaze stared blankly at the smiling face in front of him. The man was covered in tattoos. Blaze blinked and really stared at the man. The man's smiled faltered and he put his hands on Blaze's shoulders just as it clicked in the redhead's mind.

"Theo?" he whispered, eyes narrowing, scrutinizing. The grin returned to the man's face and he held a finger to his lips.

"Shh, kid. It's Dread now, short for Drop Dead," the now christened Dread, and confirmed Blaze's older brother, said. He ruffled Blaze's hair. "I knew it had to be you when they announced the first jumper was a redhead Candor." Dread pulled Blaze into a hug. "I knew my baby brother was Dauntless." Blaze swallowed. He wasn't _just_ Dauntless.

"I didn't expect you to find me," Blaze said, pulling away from the hug. Dread scratched his scalp with his thumb.

"Did you even remember I was here?" Dread asked, smiling lazily. Blaze took in his tattooed appearance. His brother looked tired. His hair was darker and skin, what was visible, paler. He looked healthy, though.

"Yeah," answered Blaze offhandedly. He looked around at the crowd around them. "Mom never went to visit you, did she?" Blaze gazed at Dread with a dejected look. Dread sighed and smiled sadly.

"Hey, faction before blood; and we're faction now." Blaze nodded in agreement.

A few moments later, Blaze found himself walking through the corridor near the Pit. Dread had been called up to look at something in the computer room, so there was no point in him staying around. Before then, Blaze hadn't really thought about what it means to be Divergent. Dread had said he was Dauntless. But, he was also Candor and Erudite. What was the big deal? What made him so special?

"Parents didn't show?"

Blaze had wandered back to the Dorms. Eric was still there. Blaze shrugged. "I don't mind. I saw my brother." Eric crooked a finger at him. Blaze walked until he was less than a foot away from the blonde. Eric's fingers were instantly in his hair. "Do you have a hair fetish I should know about?"

"Ugh, shut up, kid." Eric gripped Blaze's hair and pulled his head back. He pressed their lips together and pushed his tongue into the redhead's mouth. Blaze stood on the tips of his toes and wrapped his arms around Eric's shoulders. He raised his leg, hooking it around Eric's hip and Eric grabbed his thighs and lifted him up. He walked and pressed Blaze against the wall. Blaze leaned back, taking a desperate breath while Eric latched onto his neck. His teeth sunk into Blaze's neck and the redhead winced, legs tightening. He felt Eric grin and the blonde sucked on the spot.

"You're giving me a hickey," Blaze muttered, amused. Eric hummed in reply. He licked a stripe up from Blaze's neck to the younger boy's cheek. "Are you part dog? What next, you're going to hump my leg?" Eric responded by pressing their crotches together and rutting against him roughly. Blaze gasped as slid up the wall with each thrust.

"Blaze, are you in there?!"

Eric and Blaze froze. Slowly, Blaze lowered his legs from Eric's waist and the blonde gently set him down.

"Blaze, there you.... are...." Dread paused as he stepped into the room, eyes on Eric. "Eric."

"I was just leaving," Eric said smoothly. The blonde nodded at Blaze. "Later." To anyone else, it was a farewell, but Blaze knew what that later really meant. They'd continue later.

Dread watched Eric leave the room with cold eyes. There was a long silence as Blaze and Dread listened to Eric’s footsteps fade away. Crossing his arms, Dread walked over to Blaze. “What did Blondie want?” Blaze scratched his chin and grinned wryly.

“Eric has taken a liking to me…” Blaze explained, eyes trailing toward the dark coloured wall behind Dread. Technically, he wasn’t lying. “I’m ranked number three, by the way. So, I’m one of the best and, well, he thinks I have a lot of potential.” Dread scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“You mean he wants to train you to be as awful as he is,” he retorted. Blaze rocked back and forth on his feet and shrugged.

“Ah, he’s not that bad…” Blaze trailed off and looked up at his brother with a strange expression. He suddenly sprang forward and wrapped his arms around Dread. “It’s so good to see you again, big brother…” He squeezed Dread as tightly as he could manage and the older man let out a cough. Blaze may not be able to lie efficiently but… he sure knew how to change a subject. It was all in the art of misdirection.

“Blaze… I can’t… breathe!” Dread wheezed as Blaze’s grip grew tighter. Blaze sighed into his brother’s chest.

“I loooove you, Dread.” Blaze released Dread from his death grip, expression blank. Dread wheezed and took deep breaths, backed away from Blaze warily.

“Yeah, yeah, you little shit.” Dread huffed and Blaze grinned at his brother’s reaction. “Were you trying to end me?”

“I just love you so much, it makes me want to kill you,” Blaze sang as he rocked back and forth from his heels to toes, hands clasped together behind his back. “Rankings for stage one will be determined soon.” Blaze was suddenly serious. Dread nodded and crossed his arms. Even when he tried to appear solemn, Dread still looked tired and overall lazy. Blaze fought back an amused grin.

“You’re placing what?” Dread asked curiosity blatant in his tone. “Do you have, like, an estimation or something of what you think you will place?” Dread scratched his chin as Blaze ran a hand back through his hair.

“Third, most likely…” Blaze thought about the fight between him and Peter. He ranked only one below Peter, but maybe it was enough to boost him up to second. “I will settle for third, I suppose.” Blaze’s brother rolled his eyes.

“You’re such an overachiever, you know that?” laughed Dread. Blaze scoffed and his bottom lip jutted out slightly in a barely-there pout.

“Says the one who placed first in his class! Overachiever, my ass!”

 

 

It wasn’t often that Blaze got time to himself to just think. He liked to think. It seemed that wherever he turned, there was someone to interrupt his thinking time. The main culprits being his friends, and of course, Eric. Eric… Eric was an enigma. From day one he’d thought Eric was attractive. Up on the roof, at the ledge; Blaze was almost sure he had used Tris as an excuse for why he’d jumped first. He wanted to impress the attractive blonde guy who looked like a psychopath. It was supposed to be a petty crush, but then lo and behold, Eric kicks his ass and kisses him while he’s down.

_“You weren’t allowed to have pets…?”_

It was that moment it became infatuation. Eric was, in short, an asshole. He was an egotistical asshole with a bad moral code. He was probably a sadist, Blaze wouldn’t be surprised to find out. The blonde obviously didn’t do emotions if that stiff, terrible apology was anything to go by. In fact, he was pretty sure the Dauntless leader just wanted to… fuck Blaze, to put it bluntly. Eric manhandled him, almost treated him like a child that needed to be guided. Eric was always grabbing him by the hair; his hands always found themselves in Blaze’s hair.

_“What is the point in providing food and shelter for an animal that just soils your furniture, makes your home smell bad, and ultimately dies?”_

Now Blaze was frustrated because Four’s words were echoing in his mind on loop. Blaze was aware he’d let Eric’s praise get to him. Not only were Four’s words in his head, but now so were his brother’s. Dread had essentially said the same thing as Four. Eric was bad news. Eric was bad. Eric was corrupting him.

_“…they’re fun to have…”_

He still didn’t feel bad for kicking Peter in the face and he refused to feel bad for liking to fight. He was good at it. He did become a bit… relentless…

Andrea elbowed him in the ribs and Blaze realized that their entire section of the table had gone quiet. Will, Christina, Tris and Al all watched him curiously. He hadn’t even realized it but he’d been glaring at his chicken, his posture frozen, his fork stabbed too deep into its flesh, his fingers clasped too tightly around the cool metal of the fork.

“I was thinking,” he said immediately and relaxed his pose. He removed his fork from the chicken and set the silverware down on his tray. Andrea eyed him with unknown intent before speaking.

“Your hand is bleeding.” Her tone of voice was flat and it was so unlike her that Blaze blinked in surprise. She grabbed his fist, the one that had been clenched tightly and resting on his thigh. Sure enough, there were small droplets of blood pooling around his still clenched fingers. Blaze blinked again and a sudden pain seared through his hand. How he had not noticed. “What were you thinking about?” Andrea asked. Blaze raised an eyebrow and Andrea nodded slowly before abruptly smacking him on the back of the head.

“Don’t do that again!” she said sternly, index finger raised like a mother scolding her child. Blaze rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Enough,” he groaned, putting his hands together and leaning against the table. “Stop staring at me and continue your conversation about pets and how wonderful-slash-illogical they are.” When no one began speaking Blaze groaned rolled his eyes as hard as he could.

“Christina, you were saying pets were fun to have…?” he filled in. Slowly and awkwardly the conversation began again. Unfortunately, now the conversation was not something he could relate to.

The Aptitude test… From what he was hearing, his aptitude test was nothing like theirs, although he couldn’t be sure about Andrea. She wasn’t talking, just listening with care. Apparently, they all had to kill a dog. Blaze frowned, as though remembering something unpleasant, which he was. He hadn’t directly killed the dog, but… it had apparently died. Blaze looked up again and this time his gaze was on Tris and her obviously nervous self. Huh…interesting.


	6. Romeo's Distress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long. I have no excuses, I just suck.

Later, Blaze is not surprised to see that he did indeed place 3rd in the rankings. He crossed his arms and shifted from foot to foot. Andrea had placed 5th and Tris 6th. Al's ranking was discouraging but not unexpected. Blaze did not have the mindset to be excited, however. He needed to find out information. There were two things weighing heavily on his mind since Dinner: Eric and… Divergent. He was almost positive Tris was Divergent. There were little things, like her bouts of nervousness. When Blaze had had his own aptitude test, and his tester was appalled at his results, he'd figured being Divergent was not something you wanted to be, especially when she suggested changing his results all together. His suspicions were confirmed when Will mentioned the other day that Erudite hunted Divergents.

His eyes slid over to where Tris stood with Christina and Will. He made a mental note to straight up ask her about it later. Matter of fact, why doesn't he do it now? Blaze leaned over to Andrea. "Hey, I need to talk to Tris about something; I'll see you later?" Andrea's dark eyes glared up at him warily before she nodded. Blaze grinned and then began to make his way through the crowd. Once he reached Tris, he took her by the arm and continued walking, despite Christina's protest.

"I just need to borrow her for a moment!" Blaze called back to the dark-skinned girl and continued walking away, Tris in tow.

"Blaze, what-

Blaze whirled on her and she quieted immediately at the sudden movement. He raised an eyebrow. They were close to the wall, far from the group, so he knew no one would be able to overhear them without being noticed. "So, Tris…" Blaze began to pace short distances in front of the blonde girl. "You're Divergent, so I was wondering if you kne—

"What?" she stared at him in wide-eyed, unveiled, horror. She blinked a few times before taking a breath. "What is a Divergent? What are you talk—

"Darling," Blaze interrupted in an unamused drawl, "you are an awful liar, and I was Candor. Who exactly do you think you are fooling? Take some acting lessons, for both our sakes. I know you're Divergent, alright? So am I."

"Oh…" Tris breathed and she looked away for a moment. When her gaze returned to Blaze's there was a strange fire in them. "Then you know that we can't tell anyone."

Blaze shifted from foot to foot and crossed his arms. "Yes, I gathered that much on my own." Blaze thought for a moment. "It also means we have to stick together. The next part of our training here, that's how we can be discovered…" Blaze watched Tris for a reaction. She was intently listening to him.

"We don't exactly know what's going to be hurled at us during the next part, it might be impossible to hide it…" Tris trailed off. Blaze looked over his shoulder and saw Andrea eyeing them with interest. Christina had begun to approach. Blaze let out a breath and slid a smile onto his face.

"Well, I'll see you around Tris," Blaze said, lacing his fingers together behind his back. He walked away from her, giving Christina a nod as he passed.

"What was that about?" he heard Christina ask Tris. Hopefully, she was a lot more successful at avoiding the truth than before.

Blaze needed to find his brother. He needed more info on what exactly a Divergent was, and why It needed to be kept secret. He'd just left the Pit when, in the corner of his eye, he saw none other than Jeanine Matthews and a few other Erudite along with some Dauntless. They were loading computers and such into the HQ. Blaze raised an eyebrow as he watched. What did Erudite need to be in Dauntless for? Shit, he thinks when he realizes he's been spotted. Jeanine approached, fellow Erudite in tow. She eyed him with a calculating gaze before her expression turned into something akin to realization.

"You were the First Jumper, were you not? Yes, people were talking about you," said Jeanine. Blaze tilted his head, but said nothing. Jeanine continued, "You've left quite the impression on the Dauntless leaders with your skills. I believe you tested the highest in Marksmanship. That will come in handy."

"Thank you," Blaze responded. He had this urge to narrow his eyes at her, but then she'd probably be aware of how suspicious he was right now.

"It is impressive, considering your test result was Candor."

"…So…You know my test result?" Blaze muttered. Jeanine smiled a frozen grin that looked artificial.

"I know everyone's test results. Well, I must be going. Perhaps we will meet once more; perhaps, when you are a Dauntless leader…" with that, Jeanine moves away, the Erudite following.

That was strange. Blaze watched her go and then let out a breath. His eyes went back to the doors of Dauntless Intelligence. What were they doing here?

"I saw her earlier here too," Tris muttered from behind Blaze. The redhead raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Erudite had no business settling in Dauntless.

"Did you know that she knows our test results?" Blaze asked her. Tris nodded slowly.

"Not the real ones, I don't think."

"Well that's good. Wouldn't want to get tossed into the Chasm," Blaze huffed and spun away from the hallway. "I'm going to find my brother; I'll see you around?" He turned to give Tris a wave, before quickening into a run.

He actually had no idea where Dread would even be. He rounded a corner and barely stopped himself in time from running into Eric. The blonde looked down at Blaze, pierced eyebrow raised. "And where are we off to in such a hurry?" Blaze took a few steps backwards and let out a sharp breath. Absentmindedly, his bottom lip jutted out a bit.

"What is this 'we'? Pretty sure it was just me on my way somewhere," Blaze sassed. Eric said nothing for a moment and Blaze was struck with an idea. "You're a Leader…so surely you must know…" Blaze let his tone turn coy. Eric looked down at him with interest. Blaze turned his head away for a moment in order to hide a smirk. He turned back to Eric.

"What do you know of the Divergent?" he asked. At this, Eric's expression went blank for a moment. In a split second, he took Blaze by the arm and was dragging him down the hall. He spun the redhead around and glared at him.

"Watch what you say around here," Eric hissed. He moved closer to the shorter male, something strange showing in his expression. It was something Blaze could have easily spotted on someone else's face, but not Eric's; surely not Eric's. Eric was worried? "There are eyes and ears almost everywhere. So watch yourself." Eric paused, considering something. Before Blaze could react, Eric leant down and pressed their mouths together. For once, a kiss with Eric wouldn't leave his lips bruised. Eric was acting strange.

Blaze furrowed his eyebrows. "So are mood swings normal for Dauntless leaders, or…?" Eric rolled his eyes.

"For once, could you not be annoying? To answer your question about the Divergent, I have ONE thing to say." Eric's fingers went to Blaze's hair and he tilted the younger male's head to the side, exposing an ear. Blaze couldn't see the blonde's expression, could only feel his breath on his neck. "They're a threat…and threats must be eliminated." He patted Blaze on the cheek before turning and walking away. Blaze's green eyes stared stunned at the dark wall beside him.

"But… I'm Divergent…" Blaze whispered into the Darkness. He frowned and narrowed his eyes. Boy, was Eric in for a surprise.

Blaze allowed himself to be carried, Eric's hands firmly set on the redhead's thighs. He soon found himself falling and bounced on the bed, Eric still between his legs but staring at him from the foot of the bed. Blaze reached forward and grabbed the front of Eric's shirt to pull the blonde down to him. He was met with little resistance and the blonde even began to crawl forward onto the bed, one knee on the edge. Blaze scooted up the bed and Eric followed, the look in his eyes holding a predatory edge. He sighed in the back of his mind.

And then he woke up.

Wait, woke up?

Blaze stared blankly at the ceiling for a few moments trying to figure why he was awake. There was a scream; he had heard a scream. He sat up, eyes darting around. There was movement and a thump and someone cried out.

"What is that?" Andrea asked blearily from her bed as she too sat up. Blaze slid out of his bed and ventured around in the darkness of the dorm.

"You need to stay calm…" he heard Tris's voice say, surprisingly calm. From what he can see, Tris is kneeling over someone who is groaning and writhing in misery. He approaches and then takes an abrupt step back. Edward lay, writhing in pain, his hands brought up around his eye; his eye, that had a butter knife protruding from the socket. Blaze winced and took an involuntary step backwards.

"What the hell?" he gasped. "What the fuck happened?" Tris spared him a desperate glance along with a confused but subtle shrug.

"Blaze," she breathed, "can you get something to clean up the…blood." Blaze nodded and ran to the bathroom area and pulled out a bunch of paper towels.

"God, it hurts!" Edward yelled in panic and Tris's attention was back on him, her tone soothing once more.

"I know it does… it's going to be okay…"

Blaze raced back to Tris and began to wipe up the blood on the ground. It seemed like hours before someone came to help Edward to the infirmary. Someone had stabbed Edward with the knife. By this time, everyone was up and awake, discussing what had just happened.

Everyone except…

Blaze glanced around for Peter, but the boy was nowhere in sight. Blaze's eyes narrowed, and as he looked around, he caught Tris's eye. For a second they stared at each other, before nodding. Peter had done it. There was no doubt in either of their minds. Blaze walked over to Tris.

"We have to tell Four," Tris said quietly. Blaze shook his head.

"What can he do? And I highly doubt Eric will do anything about this; I mean come on…" Blaze ran a hand back through his hair. "He dangled Christina over the Chasm; he encourages us to beat the shit out of each other…"

"We have to do something," Tris hissed, eyes widening in anger. Blaze's expression darkened.

"I'm definitely going to do something," he said moodily, crossing his arms. This something might involve forcibly dragging Peter to the Chasm and throwing him into it. Eric would love that. Tris regarded him for a moment before shaking her head.

"We can't stoop to…his level," she said lowly. Blaze huffed and pouted. She was right, though.

"I suppose Four is our only option then." Blaze sighed. He could feel a headache coming on. "For now, however, I'm going to sleep. I need my beauty rest." He rested his hand on Tris's shoulder before trudging back over to his bed and falling into a restless sleep.

Of course, there was nothing to be done for Edward, and he was gone by the next night. That night, Blaze went to sleep thinking about the short conversation he'd had with Eric. He hadn't seen much of Eric since then…or his brother, Dread.

When he awoke once more, it was to find his dark red curls in a tangled mess. He threateningly held up a pair of scissors to his hair in front of the mirror. His hair would cooperate. Why couldn't it be like Andrea's hair? He dropped the scissors and grabbed his brush instead, angrily bringing the bristles through his thick hair until it was brushed into submission. Today, they'd be put through a sim. This sim would portray their deepest fears and good 'ol instructor Four would get to watch. Blaze's jaw made a very audible popping sound as he yawned. He winced.

"I'm kind of nervous," Andrea said to Blaze as he buckled his boots. He had on a loose-fitting, black crop-top along with some black cargo pants. Andrea was wearing an identical outfit. They'd decided to match just for the fun of it. "I've never put any real thought into my deepest fears." Blaze frowned.

"I hate spiders," he muttered irritably. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times. "I don't like that Four will be able to see us losing our shit at whatever scares the fuck out of us." He tied his hair back and sighed before grinning. Andrea raised a curious eyebrow.

"What's with the smile?" she asked as he stood and began to walk towards the dorm door.

"I'm trying to be optimistic. So, I figured I'd just fake it 'til I make it, yeah?" Blaze shrugged, small smile still on his face. Andrea stared at him for a moment before walking in step with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter that I guarantee will be out soon because I'm half way done with it, will be the Fears sim and some other stuff.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~My old man is a bad man but  
> I can't deny the way he holds my hand  
> And he grabs me, he has me by my heart~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHAH so um things happen...and well.... ya know what the tags say....

For once in the past few months, Blaze was nervous. He had a strange type of adrenaline pumping through his veins; it made his stomach feel sick. What would be waiting for him in this fear Sim? He drummed his fingers on his knee as he sat tense next to Andrea, Tris on his other side. Al had just went in. They were being called by alphabet, which meant Blaze would be right after Andrea, and Christina after him. Will would be last. Blaze licked his lips as Andrea bounced her leg up and down. He wasn’t the only feeling anxious, obviously. Time passed.

 

“Andrea!” Four called as he opened the door, and Al exited. He looked awful which only increased the tension everyone felt in the room.

 

Only two people had gone in and Blaze’s apprehension had increased ten-fold. What if Eric found out he was Divergent? Eric had literally said “Divergents need to be eliminated.” What would Eric do? Blaze took a deep breath as he waited for Andrea to exit the testing room. It had to have been ten minutes already. Blaze chewed on his thumbnail and began to shift back and forth on the bench. Tris glanced over at him and Blaze stopped moving. He didn’t want to his nervousness to show.

 

Five more minutes passed and Andrea came out. She had her arms wrapped around herself and was staring blankly at the ground. Four’s eyes landed on Blaze. “Blaze!” he called. Blaze stood immediately and walked to the room, his nerves starting to get the best of him. He refused to shake, though. Four closed the door behind them and motioned for Blaze to sit in the chair. It reminded Blaze of the chair that was used for the Aptitude Test. He sat down as Eric turned to face him.

 

“I’m going to inject you with a serum that stimulates the part of the brain that processes fear,” explained Four. “I will be able to see what’s going on in your mind from this monitor.” Four reached out and brushed Blaze’s hair away from his neck, pushing it behind his back. In his other hand, he held a syringe. Four was going to be able to see him losing his mind. He’d almost forgotten.

 

“Ready?” Four asked. Blaze raised an eyebrow, letting a smirk slide onto his face.

 

“Sounds like fun,” he replied, although his voice sounded a little flat. Four pressed the syringe into Blaze’s neck and the redhead flinched slightly. As Four moved away, Blaze sat back in the chair. He really hoped this didn’t end badly. The world faded into black.

 

“Be Brave,” heard Four say.

 

Blaze decided that it wasn’t that bad.

 

Just kidding, it was fucking terrible. He’d been trapped in a burning room, smoke choking him and burning his eyes. He’d fortunately smashed a hole through the floor and fallen into a basement that wasn’t on fire, and then awoken. His heart had been racing and Four had given him a peculiar look. Blaze was not anticipating the next time he’d be in here. To top it all off, he’d only been under for like 6 minutes, which twice as fast than the average time.

 

Well, it had felt like an eternity of breathing in smoke and dying.

 

When Blaze opened his eyes again, he was welcomed with the sight of darkness. He was lying down, though. When did that happen? He attempted to sit up, but his head hit something hard. “Ow!” he muttered. His arms didn’t have much room to move, and he frowned. There was a thump from above him and he swallowed as he moved his fingers along the side of the walls surrounding him. He was in a pre-war coffin.

 

He was being buried alive.

 

Blaze banged his fist against the top of the coffin, screaming. There was no type of response from above, and he heard more thumps. He took a deep breath when a sudden thought popped into his head. Wasn’t this…just a Sim? He slammed his fist into the board as hard as he could, the wood shattering with an obscene crack. He clawed away at the wood and dirt and climbed up, his hands eventually meeting air. He burst through to the top

 

And woke up.

 

Blaze sucked in a deep breath as his eyes flew open. He stayed laying down, however. He’d fucked up. Who in the world would be strong enough to punch their way through solid wood; wood that was supposed to be strong enough to hold about six feet of solid dirt over top of it? Blaze brought a hand up to his face.

 

“You’re Divergent,” he heard Four say plainly. Blaze lowered his hand and looked at Four blankly.

 

“What.” Blaze sat up and stared at Four. The older man grabbed his chair and scooted it closer to where Blaze sat.

 

“You,” Four repeated, “Are Divergent.” Blaze didn’t even know how to respond. He blinked at Four before standing and walking out of the room. He walked past Andrea where she was waiting for him and out into the Pit.

 

He then burst into a run. He didn’t stop until he was at the chasm. Stumbling to the edge, Blaze threw up over the side. That was pleasant. Four was going to yell at him later for leaving without permission, but Blaze needed a few moments to panic. He, however, wasn’t going to get those moments.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

It was Eric. Blaze knew he must have looked strange. He was standing, toes at the edge of the chasm, staring down into it. Blaze looked over at Eric as the blonde approached him. He let out a weak noise when Eric grabbed him by the arm and yanked him away from the Chasm. “ _What_ are you doing?” Eric demanded again.

 

“I’m Divergent,” Blaze blurted. There was silence. Eric stared down at him, face scarily neutral. The hand on Blaze’s  arm tightened. Blaze bit his tongue at the pain. Eric was going to toss him into the chasm himself. This was it. It was time for Blaze’s story to end.

 

 But no; it wasn’t.

 

Instead, Eric began to drag Blaze away. Blaze recognized the path they were taking. Eric was taking them to his apartment. Blaze swallowed as Eric pushed him through the door and he heard it slam shut. Blaze did not dare turn to look at Eric. He had no choice, however, when the blonde spun him around and backed him into a wall. Eric’s eyes were fierce and Blaze’s heart picked up in speed. There was no way Eric couldn’t feel it beating with how close they were. He looked Eric in the eyes though. He never could back away from a challenge.

 

“You’re not,” Eric said, voice hard. Blaze’s eye twitched and a humourless smirk slid into place.

 

“I _am_.” Blaze couldn’t hold the expression. It shifted into something akin to a glower. “You going to kill me?” He hissed out the words. He lifted his chin defiantly and licked his lips.

 

“I. Am. _Divergent_.” Blaze emphasized each word. A strange confidence was surging in him and he stood up a bit straighter. “Are you going to ‘eliminate’ me? Am I your enemy now?” Blaze glared into Eric’s eyes. The redhead was unexpectedly pulled into a hug. Blaze blinked. What the hell was happening? He could feel Eric shaking; it was just a slight tremor. If he wasn’t pressed so tightly against the blonde, it would be unnoticeable.

 

“I’m not going to kill you,” Eric muttered. “I can’t. I _won’t._ I _refuse._ ” Blaze attempted to move away, but Eric held him tighter.

 

“What…what are you saying?” Blaze asked quietly. Eric didn’t respond. Blaze pulled back a bit in an attempt to look at the blonde. “What are you saying?” he repeated. Eric looked down at him.

 

“I’m saying I’m not going to kill you,” Eric said in a grumpy tone. Blaze tilted his head a bit, biting back a grin. It was good enough. Blaze melted back into the hug, but Eric moved him away. Confused for a moment, Blaze looked up, but his confusion went away when Eric kissed him. He wrapped his arms loosely around the blonde’s shoulders as he was lifted and carried.

 

Eric dropped him on the bed and climbed on top of him. His hands trailed up Blaze’s side before gripping the redhead’s shirt and ripping the shirt in half. Blaze yelped at the abrupt movement. He’d JUST bought that shirt! Eric paid his irritation no mind as he leaned down and pressed a kiss against Blaze’s hipbone before gliding his tongue up to his right nipple. Blaze hadn’t noticed until now, but Eric’s tongue was pierced… or maybe it was new. Eric bit down on Blaze’s nipple, smiling when the redhead let out a sharp gasp. Eric sat up and pulled his shirt off. Blaze frowned.

 

“Why do you get to keep your clothes intact,” he pouted. Eric untied Blaze’s boots and tossed them somewhere before he slid Blaze’s pants off, making a point of showing them in one piece before dropping them to the floor. Blaze shivered, the cool air of the room now hitting him completely. He was naked. No, he didn’t wear underwear. Rarely did he ever wear a pair.

 

“You’re so small,” Eric said quietly, grin wicked, his fingers moving from where Blaze’s hipbones jut to the curve of his waist. “I feel like I could break you.”

 

“You sound too happy about that…” Blaze was hit with a wave of nervousness as Eric removed his own pants as well. He draped himself over the smaller boy and kissed him. His hands slid down and he cupped the redhead’s ass, pushing their bare cocks together between them. Blaze shuddered beneath him and Eric pressed a finger against the boy’s entrance. Instantly, Blaze arched his hips off the bed, attempting to get way. Eric smirked and forced him back down onto the mattress.

 

“Calm down,” he murmured, grin sharp, his finger rubbing against Blaze’s hole. The boy was really shaking now and Eric sat up to reach the drawer. He reached in and pulled his bottle of lube, pouring some on his fingers. For as vocal as Blaze was, he was quiet now, just watching Eric’s every move. “I’m guessing you’ve never done this.” Blaze nodded slowly and Eric hummed.

 

“Well, stay nice and calm,” he commanded.

 

“You have remedied everything,” Blaze muttered. “I am calm. I am the dictionary definition of calm. The textbook representation of calm. Serenity is my middle name.”

 

“I have half a mind to just fuck you right now,” Eric growled, demeanor changing completely. “And watch you cry.”

 

Blaze was a _bit_ surprised that those words went straight to his dick. Eric coated his dick with the lube on his fingers, jerking himself off a bit. “You would like that though, wouldn’t you?” he continue. He flipped Blaze over. “Does that get you off, huh? Some roughness?” Eric grabbed Blaze’s wrists and pressed them down against the mattress, his cock pressed against the redhead’s ass. Subconsciously, Blaze laughed. He knew Eric was a kinky bastard.

 

“You call that rough?” Blaze laughed a bit and looked over his shoulder, his signature grin greeting Eric. “I’ve had worse in the ring. Why don’t you make good on that threat of yours? Or were you bluffing?” _I obviously have a deathwish,_ Blaze thought as Eric laughed darkly. The blonde released his wrists, and then promptly began to push the head of his cock against Blaze’s entrance, slipping in with a quick thrust forward.

 

Blaze cried out, attempting to scoot forward and away, his fingers so tight around the sheets, his knuckles were paler than his already pale skin. “I’m not even all the way in yet,” Eric drawled. “Red means we stop, Green means Go. Yellow means slow down. Give me a colour.” It took Blaze a few moments to process what he was hearing as his eyes teared up.

 

“Fucking green,” he forcedout. “C’mon, give it to me.” Eric seemed surprised with his answer.

 

“Are you serious?” Eric asked hesitantly. Blaze huffed out a breath and forced his ass all the way back, colliding with Eric’s hips as the blonde’s cock slid in. Blaze groaned and pressed a hand against his lower stomach.

 

“Make me fucking cry then,” Blaze breathed out.

 

>>>>>>> 

 

Was he…wet? Without opening his eyes, Blaze lifted his hand before letting it fall again. According to the feeling and the splashing sound, that was water. Blaze opened his eyes. He was in a bathtub. With Eric. Blaze blinked as Eric’s fingers absently curled in his hair. He was situated behind Blaze, his chest pressed to the Candor-born’s back. “Did I pass the hell out?” Blaze questioned abruptly. Eric nodded.

 

“Yep. Right after you came all over my sheets,” the blonde muttered. Blaze sunk lower into the water.

 

“Mmm, my ass hurts,” he whined. Eric’s hand fell from his hair.

 

“Yeah… it’s a good thing we’re out of the physical phase of training,” replied Eric.

 

“Four knows,” Blaze said.

 

“Four knows what?”

 

“That I’m Divergent.” Blaze rolled his eyes even though Eric couldn’t see. Eric’s fingers trailed up Blaze’s thigh to his hips and then to his hair.

 

“They’re not touching you,” Eric said fiercely. “I will kill them first…” Eric brushed his fingers through Blaze’s hair, and the redhead uncharacteristically flushed. He wasn’t sure why, but hearing the anger in Eric’s voice made his heart race.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THAT WAS SO CRAPPY THIS IS WHY I DON'T WRITE ROMANCES UGH, THIS IS DANEAMBROS'S JOB BUT HE'S MIA. Whatever, I got this *cracks knuckles*

**Author's Note:**

> I'd just like to explain some of the tags that might need some elaboration.
> 
> For the most part, this story follows the Movie's canon events. When we say modification of canon events, we mean that we are tweaking major points in the story so, for example, Blaine being called for Dauntless. A better example being Blaine as the first jumper and Tris as the second, but Four still asking if she got pushed. I'm sorry if I just confused you even more :P
> 
> Also, for some odd reason, in the movies, Eric and Four are 24 instead of 18, but all the initiates are still 16
> 
> That age difference


End file.
